Concern trolling the potential future (poor) neighbors

Though the biggest debate seems to be over whether the potential Vista Drive development is in North Douglas, West Juneau or Douglas — it is quite confusing for someone fresh to Juneau, or anyone who hasn't lived on the Island, so let's give our new City and Education reporter a break — the debate raging in my head was whether or not to call out the concern trolls.

What's concern trolling? It's pretending to have another person's (or demographic's) best interests in mind, when the real motive behind the commenting is much more selfish. That's right. Those of you feigning concern about dangerous traffic, kids playing on hills and the poors being unable to afford yak-trax — I see right through it.

By all means, comment away, as is your right, but know that it's really not your business if the elderly and the poors have the right car or the right footwear to handle your treacherous Douglas hills. The people who will live there will do so with the knowledge that they'll have to figure out things like transportation and traction, grocery shopping and the safety of their children.

At least some people have been honest enough to complain about property values being affected by having affordable or low-income housing built nearby, but when someone commented about "spillover" of the kids into the Crest neighborhood, do you think they were worried about kids crossing streets in the dark? Or kids from the wrong side of the development crossing the street in the dark for devious purposes?

One of the commenters was right in saying purchasing a condo near undeveloped land was a risk condo and property owners should have taken into account. I guess if concerned citizens really wanted to save the elderly and poor from that dangerous potential development, they could band together to buy out the property and turn it into whatever people who hate poors like — a golf course? A manicured garden with roaming peacocks?

Or maybe we can continue moving forward with a development that might allow some people to afford rent without having to work two or three low-paying jobs, that will allow someone elderly to retire in peace after working so many years and finding their retirement falls short, and maybe people can stop acting like the poverty line should involve a barbed-wire fence, keeping socioeconomic classes separated.

The original story is here: http://juneauempire.com/local/2013-09-30/vista-drive-housing-project-undergoes-public-scrutiny